Problem: Plot $(-3, 1)$ and select the quadrant in which the point lies. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 \llap{-}2 \llap{-}3 \llap{-}4 \llap{-}5 \llap{-}6 \llap{-}7 \llap{-}8 \llap{-}9 \llap{-}10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 \llap{-}2 \llap{-}3 \llap{-}4 \llap{-}5 \llap{-}6 \llap{-}7 \llap{-}8 \llap{-}9 \llap{-}10 y x $ \text{ QI }$ $ \text{ QII }$ $ \text{ QIII }$ $ \text{ QIV }$
Coordinates are listed as $({x},{y})$ So, for $( {-3}, {1} )$ our $x$ -coordinate is ${-3}$ and our $y$ -coordinate is ${1}$ The $x$ -coordinate tells how far we move to the right from the origin and the $y$ -coordinate tells us how far we move up from the origin. Since our $x$ -coordinate is negative, we move ${3}$ to the left. Since our $y$ -coordinate is positive, we move ${1}$ up. Move the point to $( {-3}, {1} )$ at the marked point above. Now that we have our point plotted, we can figure out the quadrant. By convention, quadrants are named with a capital $\text{Q}$ and a roman numeral, starting in the upper right quadrant as $\text{QI}$ and rotating counter-clockwise. Since our point is in the upper left portion of the graph, the quadrant is ${\text{QII}}$.